LemFi, a fast-growing Nigerian cross-border remittance platform, made headlines with its $53 million Series B raise in January 2025—an event that also marked a landmark exit for Silverbacks Holdings, delivering an impressive 29x return on investment. The private equity firm, known for its strategic bets across Africa’s tech-enabled and regulated sectors, discreetly exited its stake during the round, further cementing Nigeria’s fintech space as a hub for high-yield, regulation-driven innovation.

This exit—the eighth for Silverbacks and the sixth from a Nigerian tech-enabled firm—reflects the firm’s hybrid approach to scaling African innovation through both capital and governance. Notably, it is the fourth profitable exit Silverbacks has recorded from a Nigerian fintech, reaffirming investor confidence in sectors strengthened by regulatory compliance frameworks and risk-managed scaling strategies.

“This eighth profitable exit, delivering 29x cash invested, is another testament to the quality of our founders and the sophistication of our investment ecosystem,” said Ibrahim Sagna, Executive Chairman of Silverbacks Holdings. “Our mission remains to spotlight African tech, sports, and creative ingenuity on the global stage.”

Silverbacks’ win comes amid a broader decline in private capital exits across Africa. After peaking in 2022, the volume of exits plunged, with only 43 recorded in 2023—a 48% drop. The trend continued into 2024, with just 31 exits reported by Q3. Despite this downturn, Silverbacks’ LemFi exit illustrates that strategic positioning in compliance-driven fintech still yields outsized returns.

LemFi’s success—and the investor reward it generated—reinforces a growing trend: fintechs that embed Regulatory Technology (RegTech) solutions from inception are better positioned to scale responsibly, attract growth-stage capital, and navigate complex regulatory landscapes.

Silverbacks Holdings has steadily diversified its portfolio across regulated and creative industries, including investments in Shuttlers, Carry1st, and Gozem, as well as cultural ventures like the Cape Town Tigers basketball team and African Warriors Fighting Championship (AWFC), a Nigerian traditional boxing promotion. Their appointment of Sanford R. Climan, CEO of Entertainment Media Ventures, to the advisory board reflects a deliberate shift toward convergence between technology, culture, and governance.

“Africa’s tech, entertainment, and creative sectors are primed for global relevance,” Climan said. “Silverbacks’ focus on ventures that blend innovation with cultural impact aligns with my commitment to transformative investments.”

These recent exits—alongside Oui Capital’s from Moniepoint and Alitheia Capital’s from Baobab—signal a maturing ecosystem where compliance analytics, financial crime prevention, and regulatory intelligence are becoming critical to investor decision-making. Nigeria’s fintech landscape, fortified by strong internal controls and agile regulatory adaptation, continues to prove itself as one of the continent’s most profitable investment domains.

As Regulatory Technology trends evolve, success stories like LemFi’s not only validate capital but also highlight the increasing importance of regulatory change management and compliance risk assessment in Africa’s digital financial future.